We now interrupt this family publication to bring you?Colin Farrell. The normally potty-mouthed 28-year-old actor is going to need a few more dashes in his vocabulary today, since the topic at hand is Warner Independent’s ”A Home at the End of the World,” his understated indie film (out July 23) that has become better known as ”that movie where he’s naked but it was apparently ‘too distracting’ so they’ve cut it out.” It does, however, feature a remarkably subtle turn by Farrell, who evolves vividly from long-haired Ohio teen to assured, though sexually ambiguous, young adult. Over a late-morning snack of Camels and a bottle of Pacifico in Beverly Hills, Farrell comes clean about his allegedly offending appendage, the film’s newly added same-sex kiss, and the similar controversy that’s sure to follow his next film, ”Alexander.”

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When I was watching the movie, the main thing that came to mind was?Bad wig? Well, that, and I wonder why you wanted to do this movie in the first place. Your character, the ultra-naive Bobby, is so different for you.COLIN FARRELL: My agent passed me the script, and I read it in Dublin on me couch. I think I called him at four or five in the morning and left him a message on his voice-mail. I hadn’t read anything like it. It was just very gentle. It was about people whose lives are changing and molding and about loss. I had never read anything so f—in’ intense on the idea of love, yet didn’t hit it with a hammer.

You had to read for the director, Michael Mayer, correct?If somebody won’t let me do something that I want to do, I’ll read for it. I’ll never be beyond reading for s—. I read for ”Alexander” as well. Having said that, it’s nice to get offered things; don’t get me wrong. I hope everyone doesn’t start saying, ”We’ve got to read him for everything!”

So how did your salary for this compare with your bigger movies?I made two grand a week on this. But look, man, I’m never going to be on the breadline, you know? I’m fine. I have things in place. I have a son now [10-month-old James with ex-girlfriend Kim Bordenave], and I know he’s always going to be okay for education and health. I don’t fly planes, I don’t like expensive cars, and I don’t want a big house with a pool.

Besides the wig, what was the biggest challenge in playing this part? When so much importance is placed on a particular energy that you’ve become known for, whether it’s brooding or swagger or being butch, it’s very easy for the human mind to find comfort in being recognized as one thing, which can become a form of self-imprisonment as an actor. So I suppose [the challenge was] for me to break out of that and be as open and weak and simple as Bobby was.

I can’t open a paper these days without reading something about your nude scene. Are you surprised by all the attention it’s gotten? Yeah, man, I mean, f— me! Who gives a f—? Apart from the readers of The Advocate maybe, who wants to see Colin Farrell’s c— that much? And let me tell you, it ain’t nothing to f—in’ write home about. Someone told me that someone said it was fine but it was no Ewan McGregor!

I saw the early version with the scene, and it wasn’t that big a deal, pardon the pun. [Laughs] No, it’s nothing, man! I walk to a door and you see my c—, and I walk out of the shot. It’s dark, and it’s three inches, uh, seconds long.